Locals tackle potholes in Ironton

If there is one thing that everyone knows, it is that Ironton, like every city in America, has its fair share of potholes. While the city would like to see them repaired, the cost of road repair is high for the cash-strapped city.

So, a couple of local guys decided to take matters into their own hands, literally.

“We just wanted to help the city out some, the roads are bad,” said Dan Harmon. “Of course,  we can’t fill in every pot hole in this city, but we can pick out some the worst ones and try to make it a little better.”

Harmon, a teacher at Dawson-Bryant High School, has enlisted the help of Tim Willis and Sarah Simmons, and they will spend Saturday filling in potholes, starting on Park Avenue by the Rite Aid store.

“If you hit them very hard, you’d blow a tire out,” Harmon said. He added he’s not a contractor, “just a regular old citizen.”

They will be filling in the potholes with black top that was donated by Iron City Hardware.

“So, we are just going to pop the bag open, fill it in, tamp it down and let it dry,” he said. “That’s about as simple as it gets.”

From there, they plan to get some of the ones further up the road on the way to the Ironton Hills Plaza.

“I drive that way everyday and man, it’s bad,” Harmon said. “And then, since Jim Hacker donated this, we are going to get the ones in front of his hardware store. That’s on the way to the Ironton Farmers Market. These are all roads that are traveled a lot.”

He said the goal is to make the roads smoother and keep it from tearing up people’s cars.

Harmon said before he started the project, he talked with Ironton Mayor Katrina Keith and got permission.

“She had to make a couple phone calls to the state, but it got okayed,” he said. “So, we are good to go.”

Harmon said they would like to continue to fill in potholes since there are plenty around.

“We don’t have thousands and thousands of dollars, but if we can fix a hole here and a hole there, every little bit will help,” he said. “What I would like to see is people decide to pitch in.  If we could get everyone in the city to help, we could fix up a lot of stuff.”

Harmon said he would like to paint some of the roadway lines too. He said that he teaches driver’s ed and it’s hard to tell students to stop on the line when it has been worn away and is gone or barely visible.